Auburn’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art asking for donations to help acquire Andy Warhol’s photo of John Oates in an Auburn shirt

Because Your Pic, Your Pic Is On Our List: The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art wants to do the right thing. You can help.

It would be the cryingest of shames were the incredibly powerful photo that pop art pioneer Andy Warhol snapped of John Oates (of dynamic pop duo Hall & Oates) in his beloved “War Damn Eagle” T-shirt in 1981, which is being auctioned off by Christie’s (and which TWER was honored to introduce to the Auburn world last week), to up not somewhere in the Loveliest Village but in some snooty Brooklyn loft or something. You know it. We know. And Auburn’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art knows it. And they’re taking exactly the kind of action you’d hoped they would.

They just may need your help

The museum plans to [UPDATE: Make that has already] bid on the photo, which is part of Christie’s new “Andy Warhol @ Christie’s: The Entertainers” series. The starting bid is set at $2,000. The auction ends Tuesday Wednesday..

“We’re prepared to bid approximately bid $3,000,” says the museum’s Print and Digital Media producer, Charlotte Hendrix. However, since Christie’s expects the photo to go for possibly as high as $5,000, Hendrix says the museum’s acquisition folks are seeking just-in-case private donations through noon tomorrow to help them “stay competitive” through .

“That’s why we’re hoping to tap into the Auburn Family—to make this part of the museum’s permanent collection,” Hendrix says.

And not just for the War Damn novelty of it all, either. The museum’s permanent collection actually already includes a set Polaroids that Warhol took of celebrities, including shots of Cheryl Tiegs, Chris Evert (sister of former Auburn tennis star Drew Evert—what a headline), Georgia O’Keeffe, and Sean Lennon among others, that are currently on display in an exhibit celebrating the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art tenth anniversary.

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